Just When I Think it's All Good...

Dammit Greg,

I made it through your birthday this year.  I was even happily recalling some of our hi-jinks without getting all wistful.  I've recently been able to talk about your death much more matter-of-factly.  But this morning I was browsing online for a new tent, and it made me think back to all of our Boys' Trips, and now I'm missing you again.

That's the thing I don't believe you understood when you checked out.  You had no idea how intertwined you were with our existence... our happiness.  You had no idea how many people you would hurt, and how long that ache would last.  Like I said to you earlier, your suicide left a special kind of pain.  It's like herpes, man... the gift that keeps on giving.

I guess I need to be clear about something, and I'll explain it in terms you'll understand, because you've always loved the water.  The grief is kind of like ripples in a pond.  That initial splash, when you actually died, was like throwing a huge rock into a perfectly calm pong, and it threatened to drown us.  Now time has passed.  The center is calm again; the ripples are smaller as they're spreading further away from that initial violent splash.  This isn't a perfect analogy though, because I'm starting to see that those ripples will probably never completely go away.

Not Quite a Bust

Well, today is the big day... the solar eclipse.  I had been hoping to take my grandson out to see the spectacle, making a full science day out of it.  I'd hoped to show him how to cook nachos in a solar oven, teach him how to burn stuff with a magnifying glass, and a few other science activities.  Unfortunately, mother nature isn't cooperating in my neck of the woods.  It's been raining most of the morning, and the sky is overcast to the point that we can't see the sun.  The closest we will come to experiencing the eclipse is that it will become quite dark outside.

It hasn't been a total loss though.  Being a Marine, I adapted, improvised and overcame, and we've spent the entire morning doing indoor science experiments.  Here's what we did...

-We did the vinegar and baking soda experiment.  I added a little personal flare by mixing some food coloring in with the vinegar.

-We made magic mud with cornstarch and water.  We had a lot of fun with this one.

-We made a mason jar ocean by filling the mason jar about halfway with blue-dyed water, and then topping it off with vegetable oil.  He said this was his favorite... probably because he gets to keep it as a souvenir.

-We shined up tarnished pennies by putting them in a glass with vinegar.

-We put part of a bar of Ivory soap into the microwave and watched it expand like a marshmallow.

-We did some tie-dye art on paper.  We started with milk in a large casserole dish.   We added some dish soap, and then added food coloring.  We then placed a couple of pieces of paper on top of the solution.  The result (which is still drying) is tie-dyed sheets of paper.

-We put a raw egg into vinegar, and are watching the vinegar dissolve the egg shell.

We had a lot of fun doing science stuff.  Definitely a day well spent.  It was nowhere near the bust it could have been.